Critically acclaimed producer Colin Richardson called it a day, in between the mixing sessions of the new and highly anticipated Carcass album Surgical Steel.

During an interview with El Santuario Del Rock, guitarist Bill Steer stated the following about the incident:

He quit yesterday. He was two weeks into mixing the album and he decided that he didnít want to continue. So Andy Sneap is taking over. [Richardson] produced the album. Itís just that heís hit a brick wall with the mix and doesnít want to continue. So weíre bringing in Andy Sneap to do the mix now. Itís a shame, but we finished recording the album three months ago. There are a lot of reasons for it, but the main reason is that he says he is burnt out. I guess it will be a positive thing to bring in some fresh ears.

Mixing duties have been undertaken by acclaimed English producer Andy Sneap.

Sorry to disappoint anyone looking for scandal but its all pretty straight forward. Colin's been on the album for months, heard it relentlessly day in and day out and just felt like it needed fresh ears. I've been there myself plenty of times and would quite happily hand a mix over to Colin if I felt the same way and he was available. I've know Colin since the early 90's and we've always got on great, always talk (shit) and send mixes to each other for second opinions so this was a bit of no brainer really. They've been recording it 30 minutes up the road from me, I've also been friends with Bill and jeff for years so it all seemed quite logical. The recording sounds really good, I'm loving the songs, great energy to the playing so I really have high hopes for it.

And he surely knows how people keep thinking his mixing will ruin the album and can joke about it.

Quote:

I will of course be reamping, triggering and quantizing the piss out to this so it sounds identical to every other production I've done.

Overall, if this album fails, it's not because of Sneap, no matter what he does behind the desk. Not my favorite mixer as it's often too polished for my taste, but I'm quite sure this will sound like the band wants it to sound. Bigger mixers tend to get a lot of shit because many of their works are a bit similar sound-wise, but big part of that is the bands coming in and saying stuff like "your work on album X sounded awesome, we want the same".

Sneap did a great job on the HELL album - the ultra clean production fit the traditional nwobhm sound they have.. Not sure how its going to sound on Carcass? But like the prior post stated - there looking for a led zep "death and roll" kinda sound - the genital grinder days are long gone

I think they said it would just be a mix of old and new material but I am expecting something in between Heartwork and Swansong which will be shit. I am going to see them this week I wonder if they will play any new songs, I would just prefer to hear as much Reek - Necroticism material as possible.

I really enjoyed his work on Warmaster, The IVth Crusade, Dreams of the Carrion Kind and Bloodthirst. If they are retaining any element of the pre-Heartwork stuff in their sound, it is a shame he won't be around to finish.